Fluid pumps and generator devices are found or utilized in residential waterlines, hotels, office buildings, water park pump systems, pools, car washes, laundry services, city water mains and water towers, and hydroelectric dams; and anywhere fluid, including water, is being moved through pipes. Although there are many liquid and gas pumps in the industry, there is a need for a pump/generator apparatus to both generate secondary power and pump liquid or gas, which is low maintenance, having higher flow rates than the current devices, which would at the same time have universal applicability and is lighter and more compact, and efficient, without having the commonly used bearings. Contamination from bearings, from grease or debris, or from shafts and shaft seals that would normally be used in pumps and generators for liquid or gas matter cause resistance to the moving parts. Two advantages to a bearing-less apparatus are a longer lifetime and higher efficiency for new uses.
Friction creates heat and loss of potential energy as well as wear on parts. Using magnets in place of traditional bearings and other moving parts creates a low friction environment. Supporting a moving part while under load without causing significant friction but still having the ability to move liquids or gas, or generate electricity by the movement of liquids and gases, is a great advantage, thereby reclaiming significant energy being used in flowing pipelines without restricting flow of the liquid or gas.
While there are centrifugal pumps, pumps with external motors or drives, pumps with bearings, and electrical generators; there are no “liquid pumps/generators” or “gas pump/generators” found on the market, devices which may act as both a pump and a generator with the structural characteristics of the invention. Nor is there technology providing the same or similar results in the current industry, such as with wind farms, hydroelectric dams and solar power. There are no inventions in the related art which have the structure of the invention or teach the disclosures of the invention, such as having a suspended, frictionless device, with no points of contact between the stationary housing and spinning cycle, as would be found with devices having conventional bearings. As well, there are no inventions in the related art which generate electricity in a closed pipe system requiring no external source of power after initial sourcing and generation of power as in the invention.
The US Patent Application to Kazadi No. 2010/0270805 (“Kazadi”) discloses a wind turbine having magnets for generating supplemental energy and levitating a drive shaft in a friction free manner. Kazadi discloses magnets used as an axle to reduce friction, as well as one or more stationary points of contact between the cylinder and the impeller. The embodiment of the invention discloses no points of contact, and no seals or conventional bearings. The only contact with the spinning drive cylinders of the embodiment of the present invention is fluid propelling the impellers.
The US Patent Application to Zeuthen et al No. 2011/0062716 (“Zeuthen”) discloses a wind turbine having magnetic bearings that are ball-like rather than non-cylindrical. Zeuthen utilizes magnets to aid against an asymmetrical loading for a wind turbine, thereby providing a “sideways” push, as opposed to the bearing-like thrust disclosed by the embodiment of the present invention made from two opposing ring magnets pushing in one elevational direction in the pump/generator devices. As well, Zeuthen discloses a center axis to rotate on itself, having a bearing in the center of the cylinder restricting fluid passing through the cylinder, unlike the structure of the invention, which has no fluid restriction.
The Hoskin U.S. Pat. No. 622,474 (“Hoskin”) discloses a fluid turbine having a helical impeller, bearings and an armature of an electromagnetic motor, requiring an iron core exterior of the turbine. In particular, Hoskin provides a side feed structure to power the invention, and side inlet and exit ports due to centrifugal effect on the fluid, rather than top or bottom feed with an opposing exit as the present invention. Hoskins would not use or teach the use of the magnetic bearings of the invention due to the uneven pressures that would be caused by the side inlet and outlet. Also, the embodiment of the present invention uses a serpentine coil in the devices, turning the generators into fully reversible pumps.
Hoskin would not teach providing magnetic bearings because it requires an iron core coil in that invention, which would cause an attraction between the iron core inside the coil and the magnetic drive cylinder resulting in energy loss, making it inoperative for such an intended purpose, teaching against any combination, and not create the friction-free assembly structure of the invention for generating energy supplemental to the turbine. The invention uses iron free serpentine, copper coils, and not a conventional coil arrangement. Therefore, the prior art would not be available in the turbine art, despite their use of impellers for generating electricity.
U.S. Patent Application to Schöb, No. 2013/0164161 (“Schöb”) discloses a centrifugal pump and the use of an external electric drive motor to produce rotational energy, not the structure of the preferred embodiments of the present invention.
Schöb would not teach the use of generating coils on the outside of the cylinder as in the invention because such use would be non-enabling, interfering with its drive and bearing coils. As well, Schöb, while disclosing magnets and coils, does not teach the use as a generator or the reverse flow of fluid, in addition to other disclosures of the embodiments of the invention.
Other related art discloses the use of conventional bearings located within the cylinder housing restricting the flow of liquid or gas and other structures differing from the cylinder structure of the present invention. Some related art uses ferromagnetic materials such as conventional bearings which would not teach the embodiments of the present invention due to constant attraction and pull from the permanent magnets. All the related art discloses structural differences to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. None of the aforementioned related art contain or disclose all the same structures or structural characteristics of the invention.